Tell the House of Representatives to Ditch Bottled Water and Save Taxpayer Dollars

The new Speaker of the House John Boehner recently made waves with his intention to cut $35 million of bloated spending from the U.S. House of Representatives' budget.

News reports noted a prime example of that waste: In the first quarter of 2010 alone, the House spent $190,000 taxpayer dollars on bottled water.

That's a lot of money—equivalent to paying perhaps 4 teachers' salaries—so that our elected officials can sip water that's bad for the planet to boot.

Luckily, Speaker Boehner has plenty of support if he wants to cut back on bottled water spending. On January 5th, George S. Hawkins, general manager of the area water utility DC Water, wrote Boehner a letter offering to supply each member of Congress with his or her own reusable water bottle (for free!).

Hawkins even offered Congress free water quality testing to assuage concerns from lawmakers who aren't keen on the idea, and some DC residents have opted for water filters in cases where they feel their water needs it—our elected representatives could do the same.

Bottled water is not safer or healthier than tap water, and often comes from the tap anyway. It can be up to 1,900 times more expensive, and the energy needed to produce the plastic is enough to fuel nearly 3 million cars for a year. Nearly one million tons of plastic water bottles are discarded as litter each year, ending up in landfills, lakes and streams.

Already, many state and city governments are phasing out their bottled water purchases in this era of environmental and fiscal responsibility. The Congress of the United States should do the same.

Tell Speaker Boehner and your own Congressional representatives to make good on the promise to cut wasteful spending, and eliminate bottled water purchases from the House budget. Sign the petition to the new speaker below.

Letter to

RepresentativeJohn Boehner

The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution to cut the congressional budget by $35 million. One way to get started is by cutting out bottled water purchases.

As noted in many news reports, the House spent almost $200,000 of taxpayer money on bottled water in the first quarter of 2010 alone. It's clear that bottled water is a wasteful part of the budget, in addition to being bad for the environment. What's more, bottled water isn't even necessarily better for your health.

George Hawkins, general manager of DC Water, even wrote you recently to offer free reusable water bottles to all House members, in addition to free water quality testing. That's a pretty great deal. And it's easy to buy a water filter if there are concerns about taste.

Our nation's water infrastructure is crumbling and needs all the support it can get—especially from Congress. I urge you to accept Mr. Hawkins's offer and join many state and city governments that have already taken steps to phase out bottled water purchases. Please end bottled water purchases in the next House budget and in your own Congressional office and start using tap.